Rafi’s songs in the ‘Last Mughal’ by Darlymple

The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple is an empathetically written book about Bahadur Shah Zafar, Delhi and the 1857 mutiny. In this wonderfully thorough book Dalrymple also mentions two popular poems attributed to Zafar. These were set to tune and used in the movie Lal Qila. (Darlymple mentions the movie and also the singer Mohammad Rafi). I could not resist looking up tube for the songs and to my delight found them. Here are the youtube links:

1. Lagta Nahin Hai Dil Mera

2. Na Kisi Ki Ankh Ka Noor Hoon

Wonderful songs. However, the spoiler comes from the experts! Apparently, there is not enough evidence to suggest that these were indeed written by Zafar. The available book of poems by Zafar does not have these two. One wonders why would it get into the public psyche that the poems were by Zafar if they were not by him. After all he never did propaganda for his poems. He died the death of a common man, unknown to anyone.